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22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
Turkey’s former president and prime minister Süleyman Demirel, who passed away on June 17 at the age of 91, was a defining figure for decades in Turkish politics. With his village background and “man of the people” image, he was known as a powerful orator and had a unique way with words, producing many memorable quotes throughout his political life. Click through to read some of them (Compiled by Selin Uğurtaş)
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“If you ask me to summarize Turkey’s situation in a word, I’d say ‘good.’ If you ask me to summarize Turkey’s situation in two words, I’d say ‘not good.’”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“Alparslan Türkeş [a nationalist politician] is called a son of the Turk, Bülent Ecevit [a center-left politician] is called a son of the people, Necmettin Erbakan [an Islamist politician] is called a son of Muslims. What about me? Am I a son of a b****?”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“Politics is neither a profession nor a science. If you ask me what it is, I’d say it is ‘politics.’”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“A democracy never runs out of solutions.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“Walking down the roads won’t wear them away.” AFP PHOTO
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
"The price of tea has not gone up. We adjusted its quality. The quality of tea has gone up.” AFP PHOTO
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“Yesterday is yesterday, today is today.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“You cannot dry clothes today with yesterday’s sun.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“Humor is like a punch, you can’t know who it will hit or when.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“MİT [The National Intelligence Agency] is not an agency that leads clandestine operations.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
When his rivals at the Republican People’s Party (CHP) decided to recruit non-Turkish speaking teachers by training them in 40 days, Demirel said: “One can’t grow zucchinis in 40 days.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
Amid street violence in the 1970s, when leftist and rightist militants were killing each other daily, Demirel said: “You cannot make me say the rightists are killing people.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
In the 1960s, when relations between Turkey and the United Kingdom were tense due to the Cyprus question, Demirel was asked why he had shaken the hand of the British foreign minister, to which he responded: “What was I supposed to shake?”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
After the deadly 7.6-magnitude İzmit earthquake in 1999, Demirel said: “In Turkey, the land underneath is rotten. But we are not going to abandon the country because the land is rotten. We will learn to live with it.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
In response to the CHP’s demand for planned development: “We don’t need plans, we need pilav [rice].”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
When asked what he thought of Turkey’s “deep state,” Demirel said: “The deep state is a derailment of the regular state.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
A student once complained to Demirel during a visit to a university on Istanbul’s European side that he tended to claim responsibility for everything that is accomplished in Turkey. “Where do you live?” Demirel asked. The student said he lived on the Asian side of Istanbul. “Do you know the bridge that you crossed to get here? I built that,” Demirel replied.
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“We are in need of even 70 cents,” Demirel confessed in the late 1970s when Turkey was in a deep economic crisis.
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
Two things in particular symbolize Demirel: The old Turkish word, “binaenaleyh,” meaning “therefore,” which he reintroduced to popular usage. And also his hat. Faced with military interventions as a civilian politician, he once quipped that he “could just leave by taking his hat with him.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
A journalist once asked Demirel: “You had to leave your seat six times. How can you still survive [in politics]?” He replied: “OK, I had to leave six times, but I made a comeback seven times.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“The Aegean is not a Greek lake. The Aegean is not a Turkish lake. Actually, the Aegean is not even a lake.”
22 memorable quotes by iconic Turkish politician Süleyman Demirel
“If matters of state could be solved by sitting in a park, we would build a giant park and spend all our time in it.”
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